[SWAF-Potluck] Fwd: [New post] well-meaning: a note of caution to our allies

[Barb Altman]

Thought you all might find this interesting.

Barb in Vangroovy =)

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Born Whore <comment-reply at wordpress.com>
> Date: 27 January, 2013 6:13:31 PM PST
> To: barb.altman.wpg at gmail.com
> Subject: [New post] well-meaning: a note of caution to our allies
> Reply-To: "Born Whore" <comment+7jupyz52g-9_gzanqp-s8 at comment.wordpress.com>
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> Respond to this post by replying above this line
> New post on Born Whore
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> well-meaning: a note of caution to our allies
> by bornwhore
> "Isabel Chen, a medical student at UBC, is part of a team that has invented a mobile panic button for street-based sex trade workers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside."
> 
> A medical student at the University of BC has developed a panic button for street based workers in Vancouver. I hope this helps workers who are left without any decent options for creating basic safety. I also have ambivalent feelings about our saviours, the non sex workers. The best safety for sex workers is when we work together in a setting under our own control. If this button saves lives and prevents violence, then fuck yeah. Just don't forget that it is second best to sex worker self-determination and should never replace it.
> 
> Which is to say, it also makes me uncomfortable to see non sex workers get really excited about how smart and amazing other non sex workers are at saving us. This project may end up greatly benefiting sex workers (if and only if, they implement the suggestions that street based sex workers offer). I just want non sex workers to think twice about:
> 
> 1. how easily you support other non sex workers who only want to address client violence (something they have no experience with) and not the shit *they* are actually implicated in, every day. It is the responsibility of non sex workers to address the rampant forms of institutional violence they impose on us and that is something y'all *do* have direct experience with. While this project may be awesome, it is coming from the intersection of two institutions that loathe and pathologize sex workers--academia and medicine--and that bar and disrespect us and our knowledges and culture on every single level. There is plenty of work that our allies could also be doing here. I would love to see the researchers speak out against the revolting anti-sex work "research" produced by UBC professor Ben Perrin--research that is being used to criminalize the same sex workers this button is designed to assist. To work to ensure that sex worker community leaders from Vancouver could come to be UBC and be treated with respect and dignity, get admittance based on lived experience, *teach* (or at least guest-lecture) any course that addresses sex work (including medical and legal courses) and be paid in accordance with their expertise. To give sex workers a platform to refute how we are seen by schools of medicine as damaged and a danger to the health of our own communities and children.
> 
> 2. how easily you support projects led by non sex workers who have resources and support and don't face the huge barriers that street based sex workers do in creating and implementing their own tested and true strategies for safety and justice. Sex worker orgs like WISH and others have been working their assess off to get their own systems of safety in place for decades. Whether that's the right to work out of our own homes or begging and pleading with police to stop enforcing the laws against prostitution or investigate the deaths and rapes of sex workers, sex workers have already thought through the best policies and practices. What we don't have is the power to put them into practice. Many of our allies, however, are in enormously privileged positions. I would love to see them pushing hard to get our own, sex worker-led community-based solutions funded and implemented. (Like a mobile panic button that men can use if they feel they are at risk of assaulting a sex worker! as one facebook commenter suggested)
> 
> This is not to say this project is bad. It did not originate with sex workers though they are now working closely with WISH to ensure that it is of value to the people it's supposed to serve (which is likely why there is now a very clear statement that the button will not be automatically connected to the notorious Vancouver police department). Because I support sex workers, I ambivalently support the project. I also invite the researchers tell us how they plan to use their privilege to push for changes that are led by sex workers and to provide a clear statement acknowledging the deep bias against sex workers in their institution and how they plan to address it.
> 
> bornwhore | January 28, 2013 at 2:13 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/pooPU-8r
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